MARK CHANG recently joined Fresh King Produce Inc.’s business development team in Homestead, FL.

In his new position at Fresh King, Mr. Chang is responsible for the Asian development markets in exotic tropical fruits and tropical vegetables.

Tavilla Sales Co. of Los Angeles, which has been operating for more than three decades, has teamed up with two sister companies to produce a nationwide network of mango and other tropical fruit representation.

The group of family farmers that make up the Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association announced a healthy-living marketing campaign for its “Natural Delights Medjool Dates” brand to encourage new fitness and wellness-related usage, and to highlight the culinary possibilities of the fruit.

As part of its ongoing goal to make bananas an even bigger part of America's everyday routine and to help support the launch of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, which features a banana-and-monkey-powered airplane, DOLE is joining forces with the studio on a number of marketing initiatives, including the placement of 100 million special movie-branded stickers on "DOLE" bananas sold throughout the country in June.

Ready Pac Foods Inc. is pioneering implementation of Safe Quality Food certification in all the company's facilities and announced that the Florence, NJ, facility has achieved SQF Level 3 certification, the highest level possible. Ready Pac is now one of very few fresh-cut facilities to have achieved this level of certification in the United States.

It's a tricky business being in the tomato game during the summer months. A proliferation of homegrown product, small local farmers specializing in farmers markets and regional deals sticking to a geographic marketing area can flood the market and cause heartburn for the commercial tomato producer.

Joe Bernardi, president of Bernardi & Associates Inc., Nogales, AZ, said it really irks him when his neighbor four doors down in his Arizona community, brings him home-grown tomatoes. "August is the month everyone has more tomatoes than friends," he quipped.